I have working on a few proposals. You want to do your best with each proposal, so the proposal writing was taking up all my time.
One of the proposals was for a documentary, and it ran parallel to a still photography contest that the organisers were also running. As a long time creator of commissioned works, I was eyeing the liberties allowed to the still photographers longingly. They were being treated at par with painters and other artists, while we filmmakers are at best treated as artisans, executing a commission that is thought out and handed to us. It's almost like filmmaker can't really be trusted to think for themselves!
I guess filmmakers have themselves to blame for this state of affairs. We don't take our art and ourselves as artists too seriously. You are always taught/told that your sponsor/commissioning person is right to fool around with your structure (I am not even talking of what distributors and broadcasters do to our works). Hardly anyone would dare to talk to a still photographer the same way, leave alone painters or sculptors.
Do senior/established filmmakers have a better time in this matter? Do they get more of a free-hand from sponsors and other commissioning people? I don't really know, I'm neither a 'senior' nor an 'established' filmmaker.
Am I right with this? Don't really know, but this is what I really feel at the moment.
One of the proposals was for a documentary, and it ran parallel to a still photography contest that the organisers were also running. As a long time creator of commissioned works, I was eyeing the liberties allowed to the still photographers longingly. They were being treated at par with painters and other artists, while we filmmakers are at best treated as artisans, executing a commission that is thought out and handed to us. It's almost like filmmaker can't really be trusted to think for themselves!
I guess filmmakers have themselves to blame for this state of affairs. We don't take our art and ourselves as artists too seriously. You are always taught/told that your sponsor/commissioning person is right to fool around with your structure (I am not even talking of what distributors and broadcasters do to our works). Hardly anyone would dare to talk to a still photographer the same way, leave alone painters or sculptors.
Do senior/established filmmakers have a better time in this matter? Do they get more of a free-hand from sponsors and other commissioning people? I don't really know, I'm neither a 'senior' nor an 'established' filmmaker.
Am I right with this? Don't really know, but this is what I really feel at the moment.
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